After two long years of waiting, BLACKPINK fans (Blinks) take the first dose of venom from the pre-release single; “Pink Venom,” and it’s sensible to say the amount was high! Right after its release, “Pink Venom” topped the Billboard Charts, reaching 100 million views in less than 36 hours. This pre-release is a teaser for the actual album, BORN PINK, that will be released Sep 16. With this pre-release, BLACKPINK shined at the VMA’s and sent Blinks from all over the world a message; “Pink Venom” is us. 

Twenty-four hours before the release of “Pink Venom,” BLACKPINK attended a press conference to stop any speculations and explain the song’s meaning. 

“Since our album’s title is BORN PINK, we wanted to relay our identity in the song as much as we could,” Jennie, the lead rapper, said. “Since ‘pink’ and ‘venom’ have contradicting images, we thought they were kind of reminiscent of us since we are named BLACKPINK, and contradiction is our charm. We wanted to show that it’s pink venom, a lovely poison, words that most express us.” 

Jennie was right on point; the song was BLACKPINK, their true selves. The song is filled with direct references to the members’ growing status as international icons. In the press conference, Lisa mentioned, “All our songs are really good, but we wanted to show this [song] first to BLINKs to show our true selves.” 

Shadowing that message, the lyrics of “Pink Venom” gives Blinks the taste of genuinity and success. At the beginning of the rap verse, Lisa references her global ambassadorship with Celine’s fashion house. “This is the life of a vandal/ masked up, and I’m still in Celine/ Designer crimes, or it wouldn’t be me.” Jennie takes a similar road with her self-written lyrics pointing to her own sealed partnership with Coco Chanel. Rosè includes a line of hers showing her true passion for rock and roll and holding her favorite guitar during the music video. And Jisoo, glowing in the music video intro, and playing a traditional Korean instrument (geomungo), shows her passion for Korean traditions.

“Pink Venom” isn’t particularly a new boundary-breaking release for the group since BLACKPINK had better successes; yet, the song is doing exactly what the lyrics intend: reminding the world who’s in charge and giving Blinks what they want, an honest image of the singers.